New study shows mood and mental health are improved by microdosing psilocybin

A study published June 30 in Scientific Reports has presented evidence that psilocybin mushrooms have a noticeable effect on the mood and mental health of participants.

The study, titled “Psilocybin Microdosers Demonstrate Greater Observed Improvements in Mood and Mental Health at One Month Compared to Non-Microdosing Controls,” analyzed 1,133 subjects between November 2019 and May 2021. The baseline assessment was conducted at the beginning of the study and then again between 22-35 days later.

Researchers analyzed the results of microdosing psilocybin in combination with either lion’s mane mushroom (Hericium erinaceus, or abbreviated as HE) or niacin (vitamin B3) to identify “small-to-moderate improvements in mood and mental health that generally across gender.” were consistent across age, and presence of mental health problems… improvements in psychomotor performance that were specific to older adults.” The study refers to these combinations as “stacking.”

The study abstract notes that combining psilocybin with HE or B3 “had no effect on mood swings and mental health,” however older participants experienced psychomotor improvements from either psilocybin alone or both psilocybin and HE.

The research was authored by numerous authors, including Paul Stamets and Joseph M. Rootman of the University of British Columbia’s Department of Psychology. According to an interview with Forbes, Rootman is confident that the work being done now will help lead to more revelations in the future. “This study is an extension of our earlier manuscript published in the same journal, and we have additional publications in the pipeline based on the same study,” Rootman said. “Our team has also been hard at work developing the next version of the study, which will serve to provide insight into psychedelics microdosing for years to come.”

Rootman also clarified that the study did not require just one type of mushroom. Rather, the researchers simply observed the patient’s recorded experiences, which ranged from low, medium, or high microdoses of mushrooms (0.1 grams, 0.1-0.3 grams, and greater than 0.3 grams, respectively). “We found that about 10% of our microdosing sample in this study reported high doses, 72.6% medium doses, and 16.8% low doses,” added Rootman.

The study description shares the authors’ collective belief that this is one of the first studies of its kind, but requires more research to provide a basis for showing how psilocybin can benefit human participants. “Further research with control groups and large samples that allow the investigation of potential moderators such as mental health status, age and gender are needed to better assess the health consequences of this emerging phenomenon,” the authors concluded. “In the present study, we aim to expand this literature by examining predicted changes associated with microdosing psilocybin compared to a non-microdosing control group in the domains of mental health, mood, and cognitive and psychomotor function. To our knowledge, this is the largest prospective study of psilocybin microdosing to date, the first to differentiate between microdosing admixtures (i.e., stacking), and one of the few prospective studies to systematically disaggregate analyzes by age and mental health condition.”

Little by little, more evidence is being gathered in studies like this one. However, it is still not enough to convince those who oppose the use of medicinal psilocybin. In late June, Linn County, Oregon announced approval of a voter initiative to ban psilocybin therapy and treatment centers (although the rest of the state will adopt the voter-approved psilocybin therapy program, which is scheduled to begin in 2023).

Earlier last month, a South African-based study found that psilocybin may help treat women living with HIV and depression. Another April study also discovered that psilocybin has potential as a treatment for depression. In May, activists from the Right to Try organization protested outside the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Virginia to raise awareness of patients who may be using psilocybin to improve their quality of life.